Starlit Duet
by tolraisgrey
Summary: Not exactly an Eragon story, but based in the same storyverse - plus appearances from Eragon characters. Seren and Altair fight the odds and journey far after Altair's unwise wish has unimagined consequences for both their lives and their love. Set in the New Land Eragon discovers about 5 years post Inheritance. Please feel free to R&R, my 1st so please be gentle with crit/me!
1. Prologue

Prologue

The tavern went silent as the young women entered, lifting her hood as she did. She seemed oblivious of the fact that every man in the room had leant forward looks of expectation and appreciation on their faces.

"A room for the night?" He voice rang out, cultured, despite her peasant like appearance.

"Certainly miss, just for one is it?" The landlord leered at her over the counter.

"Not exactly" She glanced back at the door, and a huge wolf bounded in and sat by her side. There was an uneasy muttering, and all of the men but one reached for their weapons. The girl turned, hearing the zing of swords being pulled out of their scabbards.

"He won't hurt you. Unless you hurt me…" She raised one delicately shaped eyebrow, deadly serious. The swords went back in the scabbards, though their owners gave the strange duo filthy looks as she turned back to the bar.

"Oh, and a mug of mulled wine?"

"Yes miss. I'll bring over to you." The landlord gave her a strange look as she turned her back, noticing the gleam of a sword hilt under her cloak as she did.

A little while later, one of the men who had been watching her came over. She glanced up at him, wary and the wolf growled warningly.

"Peace." He said, more to the wolf than the girl. "I mean you no harm." His eyes suddenly unfocused for a moment then came back to the girl. "In fact, I think I can help you." He said as he sat down beside her. A look of recognition passed over her face.

"You were the man who didn't draw his sword when you saw Dare, aren't you?" She asked, though more of a statement than a question.

"I was. I presume Dare is your name for the wolf?" he asked.

She nodded, with a small smirk as if at a private joke.

"Still, just because you didn't act like the rest of these dimwits, doesn't mean I like or trust you." She said, her face and voice hard. He smiled back, though he gave nothing away. "Besides, who said I need help?" she continued, obviously on the defensive.

The man smiled. Though she didn't know it, the girl had just asked him the exact right question to allow him to help her. It was his job to help those in need of _expert_ assistance.

"Although I might not look it, I have experience in dealing with matters that are more than they appear. Like 'your' wolf, for example. Or should I say, the young mage Altair?"

She gasped truly amazed, and more than a little scared.

"Who _are_ you?" she asked, her eyes open wide in fear. He lifted his hood back from his face a little, and she frowned. His features, were well, _beautiful_, almost elven, but not quite.

No, it couldn't be him…could it?

"Eragon? She all but whispered. He nodded and let the hood remain up.

"That I am." Eragon said. "But we ought best keep that between the four of us,"

"The four?"

_Greetings, little one._

_Saphira! Oh, I suppose I was a little foolish to forget that…_ The girl blushed.

"As I said," Eragon continued smoothly as if there had been no interruption, "I might be powerful, but there are enough fools in this place would fight me. And I prefer for things to refrain from being…messy. Still, now you know my name, might you extend me the courtesy of knowing yours? After all, to help you I need to know as much as possible about your tale."

She nodded, and glanced down at the wolf.

_Do it._ Altair said, his amber wolf-eyes looking deep into hers.

"My name is…'Ren. And I should warn you it's a long story…"


	2. I can't do this

Chapter 1

_So much show, and for what?_ Seren thought as she surveyed the scene in front of her. Her father's court was wealthy, especially now the Lady Nasuada had come to power, since the fall of Galbatorix 5 years before. Then two years ago, he had become one of the wealthiest Lords around, after having ventured out to the land discovered by the Rider Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Brightscales.

Even so, it seemed to Seren that her father's obsession with ostentatious displays of grandeur had finally gotten beyond ridiculous.

_I know why, _she thought to herself. _I just don't want to admit it._

The fools, the acrobats, the mage, all just to persuade Lord Nuallan to marry her now she was of age.

_It wouldn't be so bad if he weren't such a pig…_Seren winced watching her betrothed-to-be guffaw heartily and the fools' antics. With his mouth open. Full of food.

"Seren, that face does not become you." Her mother hissed in her ear. Seren blushed; she hadn't realised she was letting her disgust show.

"Sorry, mother."

_Sorry mother…A fine example of filial obedience._ The voice-that-was-not-own filled her head and shook with suppressed laughter, and she had to restrain herself from sticking her tongue out at its owner.

That was the other reason. Altair. He was showing off now, acting as a 'mage' thanks to her father's ridiculously large 'incentive', but when it was just the two of them, he was the kindest, most thoughtful friend a girl could have. More then a friend if truth be told.

She looked over at him and sighed. He winked, then seeing her despondent look frowned.

_What's wrong?_ He asked her silently, though even with out his telepathic skills, she would have been able to see the question, written on his face as it was.

_You have to ask?_ She raised an eyebrow, then sighed again.

"I can't do this." She muttered to her parents, then stood up and fled the room, as fast as she dared without actually running out. Silence followed in her wake as everyone in the Great Hall stopped what they were doing to watch her go.

Altair climbed up the old tower, and when he got to the chamber at the top he frowned. Empty.

_She must be more upset than I thought…_ He closed his eyes for a moment, then snapped them open as he heard a sniff from the slit window. He smiled sadly then went to where his love was perched, dangerously high on a ledge outside the window.

Leaning out, he sneaked a look at Seren.

In the last two hours since she had fled the party, she had cried a great deal. Her usually porcelain skin was blotched red where she had rubbed away her tears, and her forest green eyes were red and swollen. Even so, Altair didn't care. She was still beautiful to him.

"My lady. Isn't a little dangerous out here?" He asked taking her hand as he leant out the hole.

"Altair! Go away". Seren pulled her hand away from him.

"Seren, please. I just want to talk. Make sure that you are alright."

She laughed once, bitterly, then turned to look at him, sweeping her chestnut hair away from her face to give him the full affect of her glare.

"How can I be 'alright'? In one month's time I will be married to that cretin downstairs who thinks that Knock Knock jokes are the height of hilarity and that 'all castles should have serving maids of 'negotiable' affection'." The hysteria in her came to a pitch, then vanished as she continued. "I won't last a week Al."

He looked at her, deep into her eyes, conveying all the sympathy and empathy he could muster. Altair then winced as he became uncomfortably aware of the crick in neck coming from craning round to look at Seren.

"Not to rain on your bonfire, 'Ren, but could we at least continue this scintillating conversation, _inside_ the chamber? You might be small enough to fit through that gap, but I'm just a wee bit to large, and if this continues much longer, I'm not sure I will be able to straighten my neck. Please?"

Seren laughed at that, then nodded, smiling ruefully. She slipped into the chamber, and flopped down on to the dusty old four-poster bed.

Once they had both stopped coughing enough to talk, Altair came and lay beside Seren, slipping his arm round her and looked at her again. He couldn't believe that in a little over 30 days time, he would probably never see her again. At least, not like this.

"I love you Seren. I want you to know that always, no matter how far we are apart." He smiled to himself then, and conjured up an image of the moon into the room, muttering the words of the ancient language necessary as he did so. "And if you ever feel lonely, I will meet you at the moon." He let the image vanish, and stole another at the beautiful girl lying next to him. She _was_ smiling albeit quizzically.

"Which means?"

"Which _means,_ Lady 'Ren that if you are ever feeling sad or lonely, that you can just look up at the moon and know that I'm doing the same."

"And how will you know that?" She asked teasingly.

"I'll scry you, and then that way, I'll know." He kissed her gently on the temple, and she curled her body into his, taking his hand as she did so.

"Do you miss it?" Seren suddenly asked, the change in topic taking Altair completely by surprise.

"Miss what? How it used to be before?" Thinking she meant their old relationship, the first kisses, the stolen meetings. Before Lord Nuallan had ever existed for them.

"That too I guess…but actually I meant the Varden, Du Vangr Gata. Do miss it?"

"I've never really thought of it. You've never asked me before."

"Well, I'm not going to get much chance in the future am I?" She said, half jokingly.

He thought for a minute, back to moments of heart stopping fear, terrifying monsters and bloody battles. The way of living your life to the full, because you never knew whether the next moment might be your last. And Eragon and Saphira, their amazing skill and power, wishing an egg would hatch for him, so he too could be a hero.

"Yes. And no. The fear was bad. And seeing those you love die in front of you, knowing you can't stop it. But… I don't know. I've never felt like I truly _belonged_ anywhere else, not 'til I met you two winters ago. And I wish you had seen the riders in action. Even fighting each other…it was…something else."

"I saw Eragon and Saphira once. Just after the final battle. They were beautiful." Seren turned to look at him and smiled mischievously. "Still, even though Eragon was probably the most handsome man I've ever seen…"

"What?!" She placed a finger on his lips.

"Let me finish? He wasn't the most attractive man I've ever seen – too much of a pretty boy for me."

"You were eleven…"

"So? I'm not now. And I can assure my love, that you still beat him any day."

The fact that their lips were in very close contact for a while after that made any further conversation very difficult.

Later, after they had exhausted all amorous urges, they lay intertwined on the bed, Seren curled up on Altair now bare chest fast asleep. He looped a strand of her hair round his finger and sighed sadly.

"I wish I could stay with you always." He whispered. "So I didn't have to stay here and spend my every moment worrying about you in that man's domain. I love you Seren."

It was a shame that he didn't see the hooded figure in the half open doorway, nor hear its whispered warning as it left, the trail of magic following it.

_Be careful what you wish for…_


	3. He didn't Come

A/N I disclaim the Princess bride references – couldn't resist. Also – I don't own The Inheritance cycle

Sorry it's a bit short especially after all this time, but it was always intended as a transition chapter

Chapter Two

**He didn't come**

In the month that they had left, Seren and Altair spent as much time as they physically could together. Although neither of them mentioned the wedding, other than indirect complaints about the difficulty that all the guests gave to finding secret places to meet, there was a new urgency about their relationship, in the tone of the words and the way they kissed.

They had briefly considered running away, but the warnings her father gave Seren were enough to stop her from venturing down that path. In the last few days before the wedding, it was even more evident that they could not avoid it, and whenever they were not being…intimate, Altair fell into brooding silences that even Seren's most alluring charms could not break.

Even so Seren couldn't help that hope that Altair would come to the wedding, even if it were just so she pretend it was him that she was marrying, not Nuallan.

* * *

_He didn't come…_she thought dumbly as she mouthed the words of the ceremony. She subtly felt the pendant that Altair had given her the night before, and was now resting between her collarbones, hidden beneath the dress. Two intertwined silver stars on a gossamer thin chain, identical to the one that Altair now wore, to represent them, the joke being that they were both named for stars. The grating voice of the priest then broke through her thoughts and forced her back to the present.

"Sewen? Do you take Nuallan?" He said, and she winced. Why did her father have to get the only clergyman in all of eastern Astolia who couldn't pronounce 'R's properly.

"Yes" she whispered, and although the priest raised his eyebrows, he didn't comment on her lack of ceremony.

"Vewy well. You may now kiss the bwide Lord Nuaran."

The Lord leant in to kiss his new bride on the lips and she nearly gagged at his fetid breath.

"Like that, little kitten?" He asked lecherously, and Seren had to hid a shudder. "There's plenty more where that came from…"

Luckily, the usher were leading every one through to where the wedding feast was laid out, and Seren was spared any more of her new husbands advances.

It was a good feast, she had to admit that, and she ate a little so as not to upset the servants – if she wanted any freedom in this new hell of hers, she need all the allies she could get, but even the cook's finest delicacies tasted like dust to Seren.

She would not let herself think of Altair, although she searched desperately to see him in the hall. It wasn't until much later, after she had forced herself to accept her new husband's drunken fumbles and he had staggered off to his own chamber, that she let her tears fall

_Why didn't he come? Where is he?_

* * *

_Of course I couldn't go_ Altair thought as he downed his flagon. There was some appreciative applause from those watching – they were impressed at how much the seemingly slight magician had downed. It wasn't after he had had to pay after all – a few measly tricks and the drinks were on the house all night. At least when he drunk, the feeling of being separated from his loved one was numbed somewhat.

"You seem to be drowning your sorrows, young man." A bent old figure sat down opposite our hero, who glowered at him distrustfully.

_There is just one though...I think. _Altair stifled a hiccup as he realised he was about 5 flagons past his limits

"So…whatifiam?" The words came out as garbled slur. The old man gave a cackle.

"Woes of a woman, young sir?" Altair blinked as the man downed his own drink, displaying a surprising thirst for such an old man.

"Aye."

"Ah, women! So fickle with their wiles." The man smirked.

"NO!" Al drunkenly shouted, causing a few leery glances. "No. 'Ren is…I love her an' she loves me. S'not her fault. Her father's."

"Ah. A lady is she then, this love of yourn?"

Altair nodded, then immediately regretted it. The room seemed to be swaying.

"Don't suppose...no a man like yourself could surely think of way, what with your _magic_ and all." The old man looked supiciously smug just then, and had Altair had his wits about him, would have noted that he looked a little _too _smug. But he did not. If he had, this tale might have had a very different twist.

"Tell me." Altair hissed, grabbing the man's arm in a vice grip.

"Very well, young one. I may know a spell that might help you. But we can't cast it here, the locals might not take it too good."

"All right."

As Altair stumbled behind the man, he couldn't help but think that She would tell him that he was a fool and reckless. But he shook it off.

_She's not here now. And if this works it will be worth the risk_.

It wasn't until the man suddenly straightened up, grinned maliciously and flung his hand out toward Altair that he realised he had been taken as an utter fool.

_Oh _GODS was his last conscious thought before crumpled to the ground. And then…nothing.

* * *

**A/N Sorry to this story's follower, if you are still following. Inspiration just dried up on this story for a while, then tonight I think the cider gave me a nudge. Hehe. New readers, I bid you welcome! Don't forget to review it makes us author folk very happy - as you probably know.**

**Also, If you're also a Harry Potter fan, and you like next-gen stuff be sure to check out my fic, Scorpius Malfoy and the Very Strange Year, and if you like review that too! :D 'Til next time (hopefully not a matter of months this time)**


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